MANILA, Philippines — Driving rain on the heels of back-to-back storms triggered dozens of landslides across the northern Philippines on Friday, burying more than 160 people, washing away villages and leaving almost an entire province underwater.
The latest deluge brought the death toll to nearly 500 from the Philippines’ worst flooding in 40 years after storms started pounding the country’s north Sept. 26.
More than 160 people were killed in landslides in Benguet and Mountain province along the Cordillera mountain range, about 125 miles north of Manila, officials said. Residents were jolted awake by the rumbling sound of mudslides and floodwaters tearing apart the saturated soil and washing away homes.
Rescuers wading through sloshy mud from nearby Bagiuo city retrieved at least 162 bodies, bringing the total deaths in the two provinces since Typhoon Parma struck Saturday to 174, said regional disaster relief officer Rex Manuel. At least 48 others were missing and 120 were pulled out alive.
Nearly the entire village of Kibungan in Benguet was buried under tons of mud and debris, Manuel said. About 45 bodies were recovered so far. Rescuers used pulleys and cables to transport the dead they retrieved from piles of rubble.
“There was a sudden rumble above us, and then the houses at the bottom were gone, including them,” said Melody Coronel, pointing to the relatives she found among the dead.
Parma hit land more than a week ago, the second major storm to drench the country in two weeks. Tropical Storm Ketsana, which struck Sept. 26, left 337 people dead, most of them in and around Manila.
The government’s disaster relief agency said it had asked the U.S. Embassy to redeploy hundreds of American troops from the massive cleanup in Manila to the flood-hit areas in the north.
The U.S. government doubled its aid pledges to $4.3 million.
